The age of the “humaneer”

For the last few decades, engineers have been in hot demand.

Currently, and over the next few years, data scientists are the hot commodity.

What will be the next piece of hot gossip for all things digital?

The humaneer.

What is a humaneer?

I’ll offer you a succinct, clear definition:

A humaneer is someone who engineers data AND human insights.

Digital business requires machines, data, and human insights to serve as the levers that connect technology with tangible business outcomes.  These business outcomes place the consumer, and the employee, at the center of product and work design.

At this point in digital business, we have distinct roles that individually accommodate machines, data, and human insights.

The “tech person” knows machines.  The “data guru” knows how to analyze and interpret data.  The “peoples’ people” know how to account for the human variable.

Within the next few years, we’ll start seeing individuals carve out a niche at the intersection of all three levers – the machines, the data, AND the human insights.

These individuals are the ultimate digital transformation ambassadors.  They understand the technology, can interpret its instrumentation, and apply consequent insights to business activities, the customer experience, and employee engagement.  These individuals are no other than … humaneers.

Humaneers will facilitate the value stream from machine to human, as well as provide valuable feedback from human to machine.  With continued insights and real-time feedback from customers and employees alike, humaneers can add more personalized, fit-for-purpose value to each lever of the value stream (machines, data, and human insights).

The humaneer leverages machines and data to capitalize on human insights, while simultaneously leveraging human feedback to enhance machines and data interpretation/application.

Human insights help drive technological development and data insights.

For instance, you could have the newest app or service, but if the market isn’t ready for it (i.e. consumer preference, government regulation, intellectual property concerns), then the technology itself is meaningless.  The application of technology to human livelihood is what makes technology meaningful.

Humaneers will be at the forefront of adapting technology and data to the human variable, as well as adapting human needs and preferences to the advent of technology and instrumentation of data.  Humaneers can shift their reference point back and forth, from one end to the other end of the value stream, by using each of the three levers to add meaning to the overarching value stream.

From machine to human, and from human to machine, the humaneer will engineer data and human insights that integrate technology, data, and people.

The humaneer will make big waves as more machines, data, and human insights enter the pool of digital transformation.

Get ready to dive in 🙂  Prepare yourself for the age of the humaneer!

Important Note: The views expressed in this article solely reflect the author’s views. These views do not necessarily represent the views of other individuals, organizations, or companies.